Click on the play button to listen to report.

I’m Bob Larson. Disappointment in the farming community after a ruling by the Public Disclosure Commission.

Save Family Farming’s Gerald Baron says it comes from the PDC’s decision Thursday that NO finance laws were broken when the What’s Upstream campaign spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to lobby legislators…

GERALD BARON … “It says, PDC staff did not find that Mr. Wasserman, Mr. Wasserman as you know is the campaign manager, PDC staff did not find that Mr. Wasserman did not spend personal funds or the funds of the Swinomish Tribe on grassroots lobbying. Since Mr. Wasserman spent no funds on grassroots lobbying activities, he is not considered a sponsor of a grassroots lobbying campaign in accordance with the law. What they’re saying is, if he didn’t spend his own money and he didn’t spend tribal money, therefore he spent no money, and since he spent no money he wasn’t lobbying. Now, I ask reasonable people if that makes the slightest bit of sense?”

Baron says the law is not restricted to spending personal or employer funds …

GERALD BARON … “What they’re saying is misbegotten funds, such as were used, public funds in this case for this public activity, we could steal money, we could get money from anywhere else as long as you don’t use personal funds or your employer’s funds and it’s perfectly alright. Now, of course, that’s not what the law says, but that’s the contorted, distorted, bizarre explanation the PDC staff has used to justify not taking enforcement action.”

Baron says while disappointed, it’s not surprising. He hopes the Attorney General or legislators will look into sovereign immunity for tribes further and close this loophole.